OokamiKasumi
Author of Quality Smut
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2021
- Messages
- 309
- Points
- 133
Fixing WRITER'S BLOCK
The Case of: THE MISSING IMAGINATION
The Case of: THE MISSING IMAGINATION
In the beginning everything was all fine and dandy... You were chugging away, situations and characters galloping through your head, chatting with other writers about this critique or that publisher, going as you've been going, making a tidy profit on the way…
Then one day you wake up and -- WHAMMO! You just...can't...do it. Or worse: you Don't Want to do it.
Everything you found fun, interesting, and cool just…wasn't fun, interesting, or cool anymore.
You pass by the computer and go do something else. You shrug it off. Maybe you just needed to give your brain a rest.
You find yourself doing something else for several days, then several weeks have gone by. Then several months, sometimes several years, but...
You just can't make yourself go back.
Then one day you wake up and -- WHAMMO! You just...can't...do it. Or worse: you Don't Want to do it.
Everything you found fun, interesting, and cool just…wasn't fun, interesting, or cool anymore.
You pass by the computer and go do something else. You shrug it off. Maybe you just needed to give your brain a rest.
You find yourself doing something else for several days, then several weeks have gone by. Then several months, sometimes several years, but...
You just can't make yourself go back.
What the heck happened!?
WRITER'S BLOCK
WRITER'S BLOCK
The number one cause of Professional Authors abandoning their manuscripts and perfectly profitable writing professions.
YOU are Not Alone.
Talk to any webmaster or artist, they'll tell you EXACTLY the same thing. They were working their butts off 24/7 then all of a sudden, everything in their head just -- stopped.
When Artists run out of vision, they call it Artist's block.
When Webmasters run out of ideas, they call it Burn Out.
Writers get it too; they call it Writer's Block.
When Artists run out of vision, they call it Artist's block.
When Webmasters run out of ideas, they call it Burn Out.
Writers get it too; they call it Writer's Block.
What Stopped? Or rather, What's Missing?
Daydreams.
Daydreams.
All those really cool Daydream musings you had all day, every day are missing.
Writing is mentally exhaustive work that takes a high level of concentration and a huge amount of creativity. Yes, Creativity. Every character, and every story you come up with comes from your IMAGINATION.
Your Imagination has run Dry.
How do you FIX Writer's Block?
How do you FIX Writer's Block?
The same way artists and webmasters fix it.
First, Rest. Exhaustion plays a huge factor in this particular disease. Rest equals: VACATION. Take a week; take two! Get your brain out of that box! Then...
First, Rest. Exhaustion plays a huge factor in this particular disease. Rest equals: VACATION. Take a week; take two! Get your brain out of that box! Then...
FEED your Starving Imagination.
How the heck do you do that?
Go back to the SOURCE of your musings.
How old were you when you decided to write your first story? What did you do for fun back then?
THINK about it.
All that stuff you were doing back then is what triggered the need to build your first story. That's where your imagination caught fire. That's where your imagination can be found again.
THINK about it.
All that stuff you were doing back then is what triggered the need to build your first story. That's where your imagination caught fire. That's where your imagination can be found again.
But first, VACATION! Go find a beach with cute surfer dudes and babes while having some fruity boozers with pink umbrellas. Go camping and stare at the stars. Get out of the house -- away from the desk -- and DO Something!
Then worry about watching all those old movies and the anime you loved, going to Sci-Fi conventions, plus reading comic books and manga.
Also, make sure you take the time to dwell on people, places and events that excite you -- even if they're someone else's people, places, and events. Hell, write some Fan-Fiction while you're at it!
After all, the Dungeons & Dragons gaming systems would never have come about if someone hadn't gotten obsessed with JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series. Just think what the Harry Potter series, or Game of Thrones, or even Comic Books could inspire!
Then worry about watching all those old movies and the anime you loved, going to Sci-Fi conventions, plus reading comic books and manga.
Also, make sure you take the time to dwell on people, places and events that excite you -- even if they're someone else's people, places, and events. Hell, write some Fan-Fiction while you're at it!
After all, the Dungeons & Dragons gaming systems would never have come about if someone hadn't gotten obsessed with JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series. Just think what the Harry Potter series, or Game of Thrones, or even Comic Books could inspire!
Stocking the Writer's IMAGINATION
What’s in Your Imagination?
Your imagination is a pond that you fish your ideas from. Like any fishing pond, what you catch depends on what you’ve stocked your pond with – and how much you put in there.
The more you add to your pond ~
The richer and more creative your Stock.
The wider the range of information and experiences you toss in your imagination, the wider the range of ideas you will come up with.
- Adding books and movies – will generate fun and interesting SITUATIONS.
- Adding research – will add ACCURACY.
- Adding emotional experiences – will add DEPTH.
- Adding physical experiences – will add REALISM.
HOWEVER...!
- Someone that has stocked their writing pond with only Grammar will write perfect prose where nothing happens.
- Someone who has only Literature in their pond will only pull long-winded literary ideas that take forever to get to the plot.
- Someone with a mental pond full of comic books and adventure movies will have short, but action-packed wish-fulfillment ideas.
- Someone with TV shows and office experience will come up with Chick Lit.
- Someone with fairy-tales and mythology will have fantasy ideas.
- Someone with loads of Romance novels and soap operas will develop dialogue-heavy, overly-emotional romances that have little or nothing to do with real love. (Okay, so I admit that my bias is showing on this one.)
For the best and most creative results from your imagination, throw in EVERYTHING that catches your attention, from Saturday morning cartoons, to the latest romance, to newspaper articles.
And - Do things! See things! Experience things!
Hunting for the WHOPPER
Never EVER Rush an idea!
If you try to make a meal (a story) out of a half-grown idea, you will only end up with a half-serving of what could have been something much bigger, juicier, and tastier!
If it’s too small to use – toss it back!
Every good fisherman knows to throw back the little ones, so they can grow up big into whoppers that are worth catching later.
The same goes for Ideas.
Throw back the small ideas so they can grow up to become Big Ideas. The only way to catch whoppers is to let your ideas swim around in your pond until they grow up to be whoppers.
The same goes for Ideas.
Throw back the small ideas so they can grow up to become Big Ideas. The only way to catch whoppers is to let your ideas swim around in your pond until they grow up to be whoppers.
Fish Responsibly!
If you fish for only the occasional idea, your little ideas have time to BREED creatively by intermingling and adding to each other, until they overflow the pond, leaping right out into your hand – and onto your keyboard.
WARNING! If you fish a lot, you will have to restock your pond Frequently.
DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!
A Dry Pond = Writer’s Block
The Care and FEEDING
of the Imagination.
A Dry Pond = Writer’s Block
The Care and FEEDING
of the Imagination.
Your imagination needs food and rest, just like your body.
Rest for an imagination = PLAY.
Anything that entertains the mind, video games, cartoons, movies, books...etc. is Play.
Rest for an imagination = PLAY.
Anything that entertains the mind, video games, cartoons, movies, books...etc. is Play.
All work and no Play = BORING FICTION.
Feeding an imagination heavily stocked with growing ideas calls for plenty of CHUM.
"What the heck is Chum?!"
CHUM is chopped up fish. It's what fish farmers toss into their ponds to feed their fish. So chum for an imagination is chopped up bits of ideas from everywhere. Everything you do, everything you see, everything you read, everything you experience is Grade-A Food For Thought! CHUM!
"What the heck is Chum?!"
CHUM is chopped up fish. It's what fish farmers toss into their ponds to feed their fish. So chum for an imagination is chopped up bits of ideas from everywhere. Everything you do, everything you see, everything you read, everything you experience is Grade-A Food For Thought! CHUM!
"But...isn't that stealing?"
Incoming RANT!
You Can't STEAL An IDEA!
Stealing lines of text is plagiarism, but stealing Ideas is a Physical IMPOSSIBILITY.
Seeing a cool idea and tossing it into your imagination is GOOD for your imagination. New ideas add color, breadth, flavor, and texture to what’s already there. In fact, borrowing ideas from what's around you is an essential part of the Creative Process for any type of artist (or engineer.)
B U L L S H I T!
Every writer is different, with different things swimming around in their imaginations. You can give nine writers the exact same idea –and even let them see each other’s ideas– and each of them will still come up with something Totally Different from each other.
Case in point...
Idea: VAMPIRES
Case in point...
Idea: VAMPIRES
- Brahm Stoker
- Vampire Hunter D series
- White Wolf games
- Anne Rice
- Angela Knight
- Christine Feehan
- Charlaine Harris
- Laurell K Hamilton
- Jim Butcher
Need I say more?
Be Good to Yourself.
Keep your Imagination stocked --and fed-- with interesting new things and you will always have Fresh, New, and Interesting ideas swimming around just waiting to be caught!
The wider the range of information and experiences you toss in to your imagination, the richer the fiction you will serve.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Want to read my other Writing tutorials?
Last edited:
